Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a vehicle lower section structure.
Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2013-169806, for example, describes a structure in which a dashboard cross member (dash cross member) couples together left and right rockers so as to straddle a tunnel section provided at a central portion of a floor panel in the vehicle width direction. An outrigger is installed along the vehicle width direction between the rockers and a rear end portion of a front side frame, and a lateral direction frame is installed along the vehicle width direction between the rear end portion of the front side frame and the tunnel section.
In the related art of JP-A No. 2013-169806, the dashboard cross member is joined to the outrigger and the lateral direction frame, thereby enabling collision load to be supported when collision load is input to the vehicle width direction outside of the dashboard cross member. Similarly to JP-A No. 2013-169806, JP-A No. 2013-166435 and JP-A No. 2014-43133 also describe structures in which a dash cross members straddle a tunnel section of a floor panel to couple together left and right rockers.
However, in such related art, the dash cross members straddle the tunnel section, resulting in structures in which the dash cross members project out to the upper side of the tunnel section, toward the vehicle compartment side. Space inside the vehicle compartment is accordingly reduced, reducing the degrees of freedom for design with regards to placement of devices installed to an instrument panel and the like, leaving room for improvement in this respect.